25. Aerin
25
AERIN
I struggle to get to my feet as Helena leaps to hers.
Before I’m up, she nudges me back onto the couch and charges toward the entryway door. “Stay there, Aerin.”
“But I?—”
She slams the den door closed as I’m struggling to my feet for the second time when I hear a voice I never expected to hear again.
“I’m here for Aerin. And you are going to get her for me.”
Shane.
He was supposed to be back in Minnesota, fighting to control the Dacres. What the hell is he doing here?
For a second, I freeze, stunned. Then I shove myself upright, rush over to the closed door and pull.
It doesn’t move.
“Helena! Open the door!” I yell.
“No!” she yells back. “Whatever you want with her, you can’t have her,” she says, presumably speaking to Shane.
“Helena, let me?—”
A woman cries out, and my heart tightens in response. “Grandma!”
What the hell is he doing to my grandma?
“This is the nice clean way,” Shane says calmly. “You can continue to block that door and keep Aerin from me and I promise you won’t like what I do next.”
“Open the door Helena!” I yell, rattling the handle.
She must be holding it closed because it shouldn’t be this hard to open it.
“Let her go,” Helena orders.
“Light it.” Shane suddenly calls out.
Those two words terrify me.
“Don’t light anything! I’m coming out,” I scream.
“Wait,” Shane calls out, and I hope, I really fucking hope, that he doesn’t have someone out there ready to set this house on fire.
“Open the door Helena!” I yell. “I know what you’re trying to do, but this is not the way.”
When I rattle the door, it gives way, swinging open so suddenly that I nearly hit myself in the face.
I rush out into the hallway, and Helena grips my arm, halting me before I can take more than three steps.
The den doorway is closer to the front door. Toward the back of the house is the kitchen and next to the kitchen is the door to the backyard.
Standing in the entryway near the kitchen is Shane, gripping my grandma’s shoulder.
Behind him, in the kitchen, my grandpa is on his back, and Adela is crouched beside him, as if she helped him sit up, but told him not to move anymore. The table is on its side, tea spreading over the floor, and the remnants of shattered mugs are everywhere.
“Let my grandma go,” I order Shane.
He smiles. “I don’t think I will.” His hand tightens around my grandma’s arm, and she winces. “You’re coming with me, Aerin. Now.”
“I—”
Helena grips my arm, pulling me back when I take a step forward. “No, she’s not.” Her expression is fierce as she glares at Shane. “ You are getting out of here.”
Shane tuts. “I’m not going anywhere. If you want your friend out there to have a chance of living through the next twenty minutes, you’ll let Aerin leave with me right now.”
I thought he meant my grandpa on the floor, but he points his chin out toward the open backyard door.
“What do you…” My eyes slide toward the backyard as I recall the scream from outside and the scent of blood.
Chris and Zoe were outside. All this time, they’ve been outside.
“What did you do?” I demand.
“ Me ?” Shane shakes his head. “Not me. But your friend out there is in bad shape, and he’s highly unlikely to survive without some intervention in the next few minutes.”
Chris is hurt.
We could fight, but Shane has my grandma, and he already must have knocked my grandpa to the floor. And someone is outside, ready to set this house on fire if Shane doesn’t get what he wants. The thing he seems to want is me.
I have to do something.
“Let me go, Helena,” I say, pulling on my arm. “I’ll go. You need to make sure Chris is okay.”
“You can’t.” Helena’s hold on me tightens. “It’s a trap. You remember what Ivy was saying?”
I do.
Shifters were hunting omegas. Now Shane is here, and he didn’t come here alone. I don’t know if they’re aware Adela is an omega, but they seem to be ignoring her for now. That could change at any moment.
And Chris is out there. Hurt. Maybe even dying. I’m the Luna here. I have to do something.
“Let me go, Helena. You have to check on Chris.”
Reluctantly, she lets go.
“What have you gotten yourself involved in, Shane?” I ask as I cross over to him. He doesn’t let my grandma go for even a second, and he eyes Helena closely as if he knows she’s waiting for the first moment to attack him.
As soon as I’m close enough, he shoves my grandma into the kitchen, and she stumbles, nearly falling before Adela catches and steadies her.
“Don’t Aerin!” Grandpa calls out.
But I have no choice.
I still haven’t forgotten Shane’s threat to light something. The way he said it made me think he would set this house on fire if he doesn’t get what he wants.
Everyone is staring at me, their eyes wide with alarm as Shane drags me outside.
“Don’t try anything,” Shane says, his eyes locked on Helena as if he knows she’s the real threat here. And she is. She was an enforcer for my dad, but that doesn’t mean she stopped being an enforcer. From her unblinking stare as she edges toward us, she’s waiting to attack Shane the second she has a chance.
Shane doesn’t give her one.
“Is Bree here with you?” I ask as he drags me out of the house.
We pass a shifter I don’t recognize standing on my left. Two wolves at the bottom of the garden melt into the forest as we step out.
Helena follows us out as Shane pulls me around the side of the house. Then she halts there, her gaze bouncing from me to a truly awful sight at the bottom of the garden.
It’s a sight I wish I could unsee.
Chris is on his back, and he’s not moving. Zoe is on her side too, though I don’t smell as much blood coming from her as I do from Chris.
“No…” I whisper.
“Come.” Shane drags me around the side of the house.
Helena sprints down the garden, ripping her sweatshirt off and using it to stem the blood pumping from Chris’s throat.
“Do it,” Shane orders as he drags me along, forcing me into a run to keep up.
The man waiting beside the house sets a piece of white cloth on fire that he pulls from his pocket. He slams a fist into the den window and tosses the flaming cloth inside.
“ No !” I scream.
Pain explodes in the back of my head, turning my vision black.